Disintegrating tamper mass

Abstract

A tamper mass including particulate material held together by a binder in a self-contained supporting shape surrounding a concavity in a forward face containing an explosive, whereby upon detonation of the explosive, the tamper material provides initial and temporary confinement of detonation products to directing forces forward. After shock loading, the tamper material disintegrates into very fine particles, which individually contain very little energy in dispersion.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A blast confinement means for temporarily confining detonation products associated with a blast comprising: a tamper mass associated with an explosive to enclose a portion of that explosive, said tamper mass including a particulate material and a binder means for binding particles in said particulate material together into a self-supporting structure which temporarily contains the products associated with detonation of the explosive for reducing the loss of such products and enables the detonation energy to be concentrated toward a target and then disintegrates into a multiplicity of low energy particles.   
     
     
       2. The blast confinement means as defined in claim 1 wherein said binder material includes a rigid binder. 
     
     
       3. The blast confinement means defined in claim 1 further including a projectile formed of the material of the tamper mass and a buffer means interposed between said projectile and an explosive charge for attenuating detonation energy associated with that explosive charge so that said projectile is not disintegrated by the detonation energy. 
     
     
       4. The blast confinement means defined in claim 1 wherein said binder material includes a flexible plaster. 
     
     
       5. The blast confinement means defined in claim 1 wherein said particulate material comprises fine particles selected from the group consisting of steel, copper and lead. 
     
     
       6. The blast confinement means defined in claim 1 wherein said self-supporting structure is rectangular in cross-section. 
     
     
       7. The blast confinement means defined in claim 1 wherein said self-supporting structure is V-shaped in cross-section. 
     
     
       8. The blast confinement means defined in claim 1 wherein a projectile is located on one surface of an explosive and said tamper mass is in the shape of a monolithic structure completely covering all other surfaces of the explosive and having an open space adjacent to the projectile to define an open path to be traversed by the projectile as it moves toward an object to be penetrated. 
     
     
       9. The blast confinement means defined in claim 3 wherein said projectile includes a plurality of pellet-shaped particles. 
     
     
       10. A pellet-like mass comprising: a particulate material and a binder means for binding particles in said particulate material together in a self-supporting shape which temporarily retains its shape upon impact with a target to concentrate impact energy toward penetrating that target then disintegrates into a multiplicity of low energy particles.   
     
     
       11. The pellet-like mass as defined in claim 10 wherein said self-supporting shape is spherical. 
     
     
       12. The pellet-like mass as defined in claim 10 wherein said self-supporting shape is cylindrical.